President follows up efforts to localise prosthetics industry  

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has given directives to speed up efforts to acquire the manufacturing capacities to produce prosthetics and prosthesis devices in accordance with the internationally-recognised standards regardless of financial costs and economic challenges.

This will be achieved through the establishment of an integrated industrial complex to provide this noble service to every person, who needs it, out of a moral and religious perspective, Presidency Spokesman Ambassador Bassam Radi said.

The president also directed that the complex should be developed in such a way to become a regional centre to offer that humanitarian message to all countries in the region.

President Sisi on Wednesday received Chapal Khasnabis, Head of the Access to Assistive Technology and Medical Devices Unit at World Health Organisation (WHO), Claude Tardif, President of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO International), and WHO Representative in Egypt Dr Naeema Al-Gasseer.

The meeting followed up the localisation of the production of prosthetics and prosthesis devices here. It was attended by Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli, Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel-Gaffar, Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine al-Qabbag, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Ayman Ashour, and the President’s Advisor on Health and Preventions Affairs, together with a host of other state officials.

The meeting reviewed the ongoing state’s efforts, represented by various concerned agencies, to establish the comprehensive complex for prosthetics and prosthesis devices in Egypt, coping with the state-of-the-art international technology, and in co-operation with global expertise including the WHO to benefit from its capabilities for training human resources in the project.

Co-operation will also include International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO International), through major pivots that cover technical research, health digitalisation, manpower, the health system, and the prosthetics assembly and production factories, Spokesman Radi said.

Meanwhile, the meeting reviewed the details of the ongoing visit by a joint technical delegation from the WHO and the ISPO International to Egypt. The delegation was acquainted with Egypt’s potentials in this sector.

President Sisi was briefed on the delegation’s field visit to the Armed Forces Hospital for Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation and Treatment of Rheumatism, which offers distinguished services to people with motor disabilities.